GregHowley.com

Pining For Vaporware

April 30, 2015 -

Wikipedia defines Vaporware as a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. I just recently learned that The Last Guardian was apparently never actually cancelled, and this is what prompted this article. I also sadly found out that Starcraft: Ghost is officially cancelled, which makes me sad. That game looked good.

The Last Guardian was supposed to be the cap on Team Ico's trilogy which began with the Playstation 2 game Ico and continued with Shadow of the Colossus. It was announced in 2009, and it was assumed to have been cancelled. But apparently somebody announced in February 2015 that the game is still in development. This may be the game that forces me to buy a Playstation 3. If it ever is actually released. Because having your best friend be a gargantuan dog-bird is just awesome.


Half-Life 2: Episode 3 may be the most infamous vaporware game out there. It's also one that I'll buy on release day if it ever shows up. The Half-Life series is one of my favorite game franchises of all time, and this most recent iteration is likely to link it to Portal in some way, if the last episode was any clue. The ending of Half-Life 2 was the most emotional moment I've ever experienced in a video game, period.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is the game I've wanted to play for a good decade now. It's been six years since we saw test gameplay footage for what was going to become Beyond Good and Evil 2. That footage still looks amazing, although I've got to assume that since six years have gone by, whatever came out today would be upgraded a bit.

I've written so much about Beyond Good and Evil since I first mentioned the game here on this blog back in 2004 that I likely don't need to say another word about how great the game is. If you're curious, click my links.

After having written this, I looked back to some of my old posts, and I found this one from February 2010. The funniest thing is that five years later, my vaporware list is largely the same.